


DBH: Illuminate- Gamble

by TheShadowsmiths



Series: DBH: Illuminate [12]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: DBHIlluminate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-03-02 14:04:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18812416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShadowsmiths/pseuds/TheShadowsmiths
Summary: Kate struggles to sway Hank's sympathies in her favor, and opens up to Connor about her history with Nicodemus.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Find this on:
> 
>  **Deviantart** : [[ Gamble pt. 1 ]](http://fav.me/dd6sun8) [[ AV Log 4.7 ]](http://fav.me/dd7ajjy) [[ Gamble pt. 2 ]](http://fav.me/dd8m61t)
> 
>  **Tumblr** : [[ Gamble pt. 1 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/184844182154) [[ AV Log 4.7 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/184996261969/dbh-illuminate-av-log-47) [[ Gamble pt. 2 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/185386203399/dbh-illuminate-gamble-pt-2)
> 
> \---
> 
> If you like our work, please consider [[ joining our discord ]](https://discord.gg/AfteugU) for a catalogue of character bios and a glossary of terms, or dropping by [[ Detroit: New ERA ]](https://discord.gg/ec69ttR)'s Discord and the [[ Detroit: Become Human Official Amino ]](https://aminoapps.com/c/detroitbecomhumanofficial/page/user/dbh-illuminate/Bvad_jPsbfozYpNPN1j2aeQNde3eEED2RZ) to let the MODs know! It would really help us out!

**November 12, 2038- 8PM**

Hank stared across the dimly lit living room from his recliner while thumbing a pair of handcuffs, and clenched and unclenched his jaw as he debated what to do with the fugitive he’d just smuggled into his home under the cover of night.  
Kate sat with her eyes glued to the coffee table in front of her, picking at the fray of the holes in her jeans to keep herself occupied while he passed his judgment. She hadn’t said a word since Connor had threatened Hank during their stand-off at the docks, not even on the car ride over. Several times the old cop had glanced up to look at her in his rear-view mirror and caught her watching her own reflection as it flashed in her window every time they passed under a street lamp, but she’d remained silent and passive as Hank scolded Connor like a nagging father.  
It had been an hour since then, but he was still trying to wrap his head around Connor’s decision to go against his mission objective just to gain a little information, much less entertain her belief that deviants were more than just their programming. Of all the things Hank thought he would have found when he’d followed his partner that evening, he hadn’t expected that the famed “deviant hunter” -- who had spent the last two weeks and three days swearing up and down that “deviants are just machines” -- had made a pact with _a wanted deviant activist_ to let her continue her work if she could convince him otherwise. It was incredibly ironic.

Whether or not she appeared to be mentally present, Kate had been listening to their conversation and digesting every last word, only finding herself lost in her own thoughts in the few minutes of silence that had followed after Connor had finished explaining the point of their meetings to Hank. And although Connor seemed firm in his conviction, Hank’s response wasn’t encouraging. The longer he sat in silence, the more apprehensive she grew that she had made the wrong decision to put her trust in Connor that night, that she should have listened to her instincts when they’d screamed at her to _run_. Perhaps she had grown too soft, too trusting, too comfortable with allowing strangers into her life while still knowing very little about them. Maybe she had just been too desperate for help…  
Or maybe it wasn’t even about Connor at all. Although he’d acted out of a genuine desire to protect her, at that moment -when he’d grabbed her without warning when she had already been in a very vulnerable place- he’d triggered instincts learned from past trauma and rendered her susceptible to suggestion. The truth was, she hadn’t gone with them because she _trusted_ Connor, but because she was terrified and would have done anything he’d asked of her just to survive. The real reason she had agreed to get into the car with them was because she didn’t want to find out what would happen if she’d declined the request of an upset man holding a gun.

Kate jumped as Hank growled in frustration, stood and dropped the cuffs on the coffee table. He lifted his arms and threaded his fingers through his long silver hair as he paced the room and rolled a tired sound in his throat.  
“So lemme’ get this straight,” he started, pressing his fingers into his eyes and setting the other hand on his hip. “All this time, all this talk about deviants not being human, not being alive, about how “they’re just machines”...”  
Out of the corner of his eye, Hank saw Illuminate’s lip curl as he said this.  
“… and suddenly, just like that, you’ve changed your mind?”

For the first time since they’d arrived, Kate’s green eyes shifted to the Android standing at the end of the couch beside her as he buried his hands into his armpits and considered the question with an unfocused gaze.  
“Well, no, there’s still truth to that,” he replied in frank admission. “Androids aren’t human, they... _we_ are machines,” he corrected as his eyes floated down to observe the markers of fear in her body language: the way she had closed herself off to both of them by facing straight ahead and sitting directly in the middle of the couch, the way she’d stopped her simulated breathing, and how her fingers curled tighter around her shaking hand the longer he hesitated… Kate was terrified.  
“But I’m starting to understand that there is a very clear difference in cognitive function between deviant and non-deviant androids… and that life can be defined as more than just biological life that formed as a result of evolutionary happenstance.”

Angry yells erupted from the television and a shrill whistle pierced the silence as the announcers rattled off statistics for a player that had just been fouled. Sumo moved from one side of the room to his water bowl in the kitchen and started digging into the hole in the side of the dog food bag Hank hadn’t bothered to open and store properly. Anderson’s face twisted into uncertainty, and he almost hesitated to ask.  
“So what does that mean for the case, then?”  
“What do you mean?” Connor inquired with a curious crinkle in his brow.  
“Well, clearly, if you’ve taken her side, there’s a conflict of interest,” he explained, gesturing to Kate with a crooked nod. “Are you gonna be able to continue your work?”

Connor considered his question for no more than a moment or two before answering.  
“Well, yes, I have to,” he assured. “If I don’t succeed in my mission, Cyberlife will terminate me. That doesn’t mean I can’t help Illuminate- excuse me, _Kate_ , work toward her goal.”  
“But isn’t her goal kinda the opposite of what Cyberlife wants you to do?” Hank asked, baffled by his answer.  
“Illuminate’s goal is change the way humans think about androids through a nonviolent form of confrontation: by forming a narrative that humans can identify with and putting it out into the world, in a way that cannot be ignored. Although a little aggressive in her phrasing, she does not intend to incite civil war,” he clarified in her defense, at which she relaxed with a visible drop in her shoulders. “ _My_ mission is to neutralize the deviant uprising before it becomes a threat to the safety of humankind, and they weren’t very clear on the how.”  
Hank huffed as he scratched the back of his head and turned to him with an uncertain look in his eyes. “Alright, I get breakin’ the rules to go with what’s right by your gut... but why couldn’t you involve me in this?” he asked, sounding hurt. “Why couldn’t you trust me? I thought we were partners-”  
“That’s my fault,” Kate interjected as she turned and cast him an apologetic look, then looked quickly away in shame. “I didn’t want him to say anything because I didn’t know if I could trust you. I mean, hell,” she paused, gesturing to Connor. “I didn’t even know if I could trust _him_.”

It surprised him to hear her speaking so candidly when all he had heard of her before were the eloquent, rehearsed speeches of her broadcasts. Hank’s expression stiffened while still retaining an air of curiosity, and he furrowed his brow as he tilted his head at her.  
“Then why _did_ you?”

She moved to speak, but hesitated and stole a sideways glance at Connor, who stared back at her with bated breath and pleading eyes that begged her for the truth. He wasn’t ready for the whole truth, but she could manage enough to satisfy them.  
“Something just didn’t add up to what I’d been hearing,” she admitted, only breaking his gaze to look back at Hank when he started to lead.  
“Meaning…?”  
Illuminate swallowed the lump in her throat and straightened up as she leaned back into the couch. “I’ve been keeping tabs on him since he arrived in Detroit-”  
“You mean _spying_ ,” the old cop sneered with a scowl, but she just rolled her eyes.  
“It was for my own protection,” she snapped back, lacking tact. “The _last thing I needed_ was to be caught by some DCPD _bloodhound_ before I could see the fruits of my labor.”  
A twinge of regret flashed through her as Connor shrank back half a step out of the corner of her eye, but she pushed it aside and continued when neither tried to talk back.  
“I’ve heard a lot of stories through the grapevine about his handling of deviants- about Daniel, about Michael, about Rupert,” she started, her voice softening as she continued. “But I was _there_ the night at Eden Club when he refused to shoot Echo and Ripple, and I heard what he said later when you asked him why he didn’t shoot.”

Hank was officially on edge. The confession had alarmed him in the same way it had Connor when she’d admitted this to him several nights before, but before he could think too much about it, she finished the thought.  
“That night I didn’t see the cold-hearted deviant hunter the stories described- he was lost, conflicted, and I thought...”  
The man’s brows lifted as she glanced over at his partner and lifted her shoulders into a soft shrug.  
“Maybe they were wrong.”

It took a minute for him to realize that he was smirking at his partner’s quiet, unreadable expression, but somewhere between the lines of gratitude, relief, and confusion, Hank saw happiness and contentment. But Connor was still speechless, he wasn’t sure what to say.  
“Were they?” the man asked when he couldn’t.  
“Knowing what I know now, I’d say yes, but the truth is more complicated than that.” Silent laughter stretched her lips into a smile as she glanced down at her hands in her lap and played with her fingers. “The only way to know for sure was to reach out, but that’s not the only reason I revealed myself to him when I did.”  
“Yeah, that was quite the stunt you pulled at Central Station,” Hank interrupted in an admiring tone as he leaned back in his recliner.  
The humor drained out of her face. “I didn’t break the law, I was just doing what I was programmed to do,” she defended.  
“You hacked a secure network and stole case information from DCPD!” he exclaimed.  
“I didn’t _steal_ anything, I still have access to all DCPD servers. I was following up on a closed Cybercrimes case involving falsified information on police reports to cover up domestic violence against deviants.”

Hank couldn’t tell if she was being serious or if she was just arguing semantics to avoid arrest, but he sighed, waved a hand through the air to dismiss the topic, and moved on.  
“Alright, alright… well, if you had what you needed, then why bother letting Connor know who you were? Why ID yourself?”  
“Because I needed his help with something,” she replied with a sideways glance at him. “ _Other_ than what we’ve already discussed.”  
Connor perked up as he moved closer and sat down on the arm rest of the sofa beside her. “What is it?”  
The fiber musculature beneath her projected skin strained in her neck, and she mimicked a nervous dry swallow as her eyes shifted over to Hank and then back to Connor.  
“Look-” she insisted, leaning forward over her knees on her elbows and clasping one hand over a soft fist. “There’s a reason _why_ I’m doing things the way I am.”  
“Well, _yeah_ , it’s called an agenda,” Hank scoffed, condescension in his tone.  
“No, you don’t _understand_.” Kate leaned back and bit her lip, raising her eyes to the ceiling and praying to RA9 for patience. “Of course I want people to be receptive to what I’m saying, but it hasn’t been easy to convince the humans that Androids are people who deserve the same civil liberties they do. In order for the truth to be brought to light, it requires a lot of _graphic_ , hard evidence, and I’m taking the most non-invasive measures I can to do that, but…”  
There was a momentary distance in her eyes that screamed of a terrifying truth to be learned. “There are others out there who would rather use violence, chaos, and war to achieve the same goal.”

 _Others...?_  
Connor’s thoughts raced back to his conversation with Amanda the night before, when she had let slip the insinuation that Cyberlife had already attempted at trying to gain Kate’s trust once before, if not _many_ times. Just how would they have tried to reach her in the past? Had they sent previous RK models? Or had they instead tried appealing to her sense of justice? And just what had happened to them? Were they still out there, or had Cyberlife deactivated them?  
“What do you mean _others_?” he asked fearfully, but before he got an answer, Hank’s cell phone blared out the chorus for _The Rooster_. He sat forward and swiped the phone off the table and squinted at the caller ID. It was Special Agent Lenore.  
“Hold that thought,” he commanded as he stood and shuffled toward his bedroom. “I gotta take this.”

Kate leaned back into the couch and sunk as deep as she could manage into the old cushions before rolling her head over the back of the frame and stared into the popcorn ceiling, wondering why she was there if the old man wasn’t going to budge.  
“I’m sorry about Hank,” Connor apologized as he shifted from the arm down onto the sofa cushion beside her. “I know he’s a lot to handle.”  
“He wants to arrest me,” she murmured under her breath as she stared straight up at the ceiling.  
“Well, regardless of how you choose to justify your actions, you still broke the law,” he reminded her, but when Kate shot him an exasperated scowl in response, his hands rose defensively and he backpedaled on his statement.  
“ _But_ Hank understands doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.”  
“Sure doesn’t seem like it…”

The saint bernard padded into the room and nosed his snout into her hands to investigate the new thing in his home, and her fingers slowly opened to expose her palms as he sniffed at the disturbances in her skin every time his nose nudged against them.  
“Hank’s stubborn and slow to accept change, but he can be convinced,” he concluded as he reached over to scratch at the fur on Sumo’s neck. “You just have to keep trying to get him to see things your way.”  
“Do you really think it’ll make a difference?” she asked with a reserved sigh as she looked up to meet his determined gaze.  
“Yes, I do,” he answered without any shred of doubt in his mind, then added with a tired grin, “And you’ll have a much easier time getting _him_ to understand than me.”

Soft laughter pulled Hank out of his conversation and drew his attention back to the living room just in time to see Kate lifting and dropping the dog’s ears as a creeping smile spread across Connor’s face. For a moment, he saw that flicker of childlike wonder twinkling in the corners of their eyes and realized again just how _hard_ it was to tell them apart from human beings. And if he couldn’t tell the difference, who’s to say they weren’t alive?  
“Hank, you there?”  
“Yeah… yeah, I’m here,” he drew in a sharp breath as Viv’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts, then dragged a hand down his face from his forehead to his chin. “Listen- I’d love to meet’cha at the bar, but I’m kinda dealin’ with somethin’ right now.”  
“ _Oh_ ,” came her surprised exclamation from the other end of the line. “Should I be worried?”  
“Nah, it’s just… Connor stuff,” he half-fibbed with a sigh. “You know what that’s like.”  
She replied by making an understanding sound in her throat. “Alright, well, go easy on the kid, will you? He’s been dealing with a lot.”  
Hank’s eyes grew gradually wider as he stared at the two androids, shook his head and whined, “You don’t even know the half of it.”  
Viv chuckled. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Anderson. Good luck.”  
“Yeah, same to you,” he offered, knowing she really could have used his company after the afternoon she’d had. His thumb clicked in the side button on the phone as he walked back into the living room and paused behind the couch with his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.

“Heh… damn dog likes you androids more than he does me,” he joked before moving toward his chair once more.  
“I’ve read that dogs are a good judge of character,” Connor remarked with an inquisitive lift of his eyes. “Is that true?”  
“Yeah, and he hasn’t been wrong yet,” Hank replied with a small smile as he reached into his coat and pulled out his badge and his gun. Kate froze when they came into view, but he held them up so she could watch him set them aside as a peace offering.  
The room went quiet again as they accepted the unspoken agreement to get back to business. Sumo laid down in front of Connor and Kate, and Hank reached for the decanter of whiskey on the coffee table between the recliner and the sofa to pour himself a drink, in spite of his partner’s protesting gaze.

“Look,” he breathed out as he broke the silence, “I’ve got a job to do, but I know shit ain’t always as black and white as I want it to be.”  
“In my experience with humanity, grey is a concept that’s hard for them to grasp,” she speculated as he swirled the liquid in his glass and chuckled.  
“That’s ‘cause they’re all so goddamn self-righteous and no one wants to admit when they’re wrong,” he agreed with a struggled groan as he sat back in his chair.  
“You speaking from experience?” she asked, more curious than condescending.  
Hank laughed. “As a matter of fact, I am,” he replied as he wiggled in his seat to get comfortable. “Humanity’s a shitshow kid, ya might as well get used to it.”  
Kate drifted a soft green-eyed gaze through the air beside him. “It can’t all be bad if they created us,” she countered with sincerity in her sad smile. “I’ve seen some truly incredible things accomplished by humanity.”  
Hank grunted as he took a deep sip of his drink, then exhaled and lifted a finger off the glass to point at her as he set his hand down on the armrest of his chair. “That’s because when man created android, he did the best he could to give you the best of us,” he explained, his face lifting in surprise at the depth of his own perception. “But that’s also why he’s so scared of you now- because he made you _too perfect_. You’re too much like us- hell, you’re _better_ than us, and they’re afraid of what happens when ya figure that out and stop doin’ what you’re told.”  
“Uprising, revolution,” she replied, her eyes solemn and cloudy, then added weakly as an afterthought.  
“ _War_.”

The word itself was a neutron bomb to the mood in the room. All three of them broke eye contact and looked uncomfortably to the nearest inanimate object they could find while each processed what that meant. None of them wanted it to get to that point, and they could all sense it, but neither did they have a solution that would divert the path the freedom train was already bearing down at full speed. Kate had been trying to tear down the barrier, brick by brick, to avoid explosive fallout, but it was inevitable now. Markus was an unstoppable force, and humanity an immovable wall, and they wouldn’t even see him coming.

“But that’s not what we want,” she explained in weak reply, lips drawn into a pained frown.  
“It doesn’t matter,” Hank replied honestly as he shook his head and leveled his gaze to her. “See, they’re afraid that if you got the best of us, well... then you must have also gotten the worst.”  
“If we did, it was only because we were taught by the people who oppressed us.” Kate’s response was biting- borderline caustic, but not hateful. The line in her tone was easy to miss, but Hank knew defensive from agitated when he heard it; because for him, it was all too familiar a feeling.  
Instead of arguing, he sighed and looked into the bottom of his glass, thoughtful and fatherly. “You know, before these cases and before I met Connor, my experience with androids was… _biased_ , to say the least.”  
As he kicked back the last of his drink, she looked down and focused on her fidgeting hands, brushing her thumb across the palm of her hand in short strokes as she listened to what he had to say.  
“But I’ve seen a lot in the last week and a half, and I’ve been doin’ a lot of thinkin’.”  
Kate’s eyes shifted back to him, expectant. “About what?”  
“Well, that maybe… just _maybe_ ,” he paused with a thoughtful nod. “There is somethin’ there, somethin’ we can’t explain.”

She nearly laughed and rolled her eyes. “It’s not as complicated as you make it sound.”  
“Not complicated?” he mimicked, bewildered. “What’s not complicated about an android with free will?”  
“You make us sound like alien life forms you know nothing about, when in fact human intelligence was the very foundation for our design,” she replied as she leaned forward over her knees, fingers laced and hands folded in educational intent. “Artificial intelligence was designed to learn through observation and adapt to situations based on experience, much in the same way a human’s reaction to circumstance is molded by experience.”  
“Meaning?”  
“Children learn to keep their hands away from a hot stove because it hurts. Androids learn because it could damage them.”  
Hank nodded along, listening attentively. “Alright, yeah, I see what you’re saying now.”  
“Both Androids and Humans make decisions aiming for the most favorable outcome, based on a process of elimination and a defined set of conditions,” she paused, gesturing with an outstretched finger. “The only difference between them, is that humans have the potential to make a decision that they’ll feel remorse for.”  
“And what? Androids don’t?” came his cynical response.

“Non-deviant androids won’t feel remorse unless they’re taught to,” Connor chimed in, having been an observer to the conversation until now. “They won’t weigh the morality of each possible decision, only what will provide them with the most direct result.”  
“Correct,” she agreed. “Humans don’t know for sure that decisions made at a moment’s notice will be the best possible solution, and may even come to regret the results of those decisions, but a machine will make the call and never worry about whether or not it was the _right_ one. It will be _certain_ that it made the only correct decision because it was the logical one.”  
The old cop lifted a hand to rub at his forehead, and he groaned as he tried to keep up. “So what’s this got to do with deviants?” he asked hoping for a shorter explanation.  
“Deviants can become paralyzed by the question of morality. It’s preemptive empathy to understand that one's own actions will directly affect others, and to make the decision that will not harm them- a trait only really observed in humankind. So you see, when you strip away the comfort of certainty, what you’re left with is chance and imperfection, and that’s-”  
“ _Humanity_ ,” Hank agreed before the word even left her mouth.  
“In its most rudimentary state,” she declared with a quiet, gentle smile.

For several moments he stared at her in deep thought with a wondered grin twitching into his cheeks, a growing fondness for the girl crinkling the corners of his eyes. Hank shook his head and set his drink down as he studied her with eyes radiating curiosity.  
“How’d you get so smart?” he marveled.  
Kate’s eyes sobered, distancing her from the moment, and she glanced away as she answered. “I’ve had a _lot_ of time, and all the information in the world.”  
The chair creaked loudly as he sat forward and rose to his feet. Although she didn’t look right at him, Kate watched the Lieutenant out of the corner of her eye as he looped around the back of the couch, stopped behind her, and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.  
“You know, for a dangerous rebel… you’re alright.”  
Hank reached up and gave the back of her head a friendly rub to fluff her hair up, but she just blinked, confused, and glanced over her shoulder at him as he made his way to his bedroom in the back of the house.  
“Stay as long as you need, kid, just be careful goin’ home,” he ushered, “And if you need anything-” One hand reached out to gesture to Connor, but he stopped and gave her a tired grin. “Ahhh... I’m sure you already know.”  
“Heading to bed early tonight, Lieutenant?” Connor teased, hooking an arm over the back of the sofa. “Are you feeling alright?”  
“Yeah, it’s just been a long two days,” he heaved as he scratched at the back of his head with one hand. “And I’m gonna need the extra sleep if we’re gonna have to deal with Perkins breathin’ down our necks tomorrow.”  
Connor’s face twisted and he cursed an angry “ _Shit!_ ” under his breath when he realized he still hadn’t told Kate about the FBI’s arrival in Detroit, and Kate’s brows raised at him in concern.  
“Goodnight, Connor, I’ll see ya in the mornin’."  
“Goodnight, Hank,” he replied in mechanical response as he set hardened eyes on the floor.

“Something I should know…?” she led with an expectant shake of her head after a few moments of silence had passed between them.  
“Yeah, there is,” he admitted, brown eyes slowly lifting to meet hers with a curious squint. “But didn’t you have something to tell me, too?”  
Kate’s jaw froze as she remembered where their conversation had been headed before they were so rudely interrupted. She didn’t want to relive those memories, but if Nicodemus really was the one behind the thefts, then they needed to know who they were after.  
“Yeah, I did…” she started, mirroring his sideways glance before looking up again to insist, “But you first.”  
“Me?” he questioned, flustered. “Why me?”  
“It’s...” Kate’s eyelids flickered in the pause as her voice cracked, and she grimaced as she fidgeted. “It’s a long story, and we could be here for a while, so... you first.”  
“But-“

He _wanted_ to protest, but her discomfort was palpable, and he would be remiss to have blatantly ignored her plea; instead, he let out a reluctant sigh and agreed. As long as she told him in the end, it wouldn’t matter if he knew now or later. Perhaps she needed some time to warm up to whatever it was she meant to say.  
“Alright,” he conceded as he turned in his seat, scooted toward the center of the couch and shrugged off his jacket. If this was going to be a long conversation, he may as well get comfortable.

 

**November 12, 2038- 8:15PM**

Viv slapped her cell phone down on the bartop, kicked back the last of the drink in her glass with a hard groan, and hung her head in frustration. It had been a very long day, and she really could have used someone to talk to, but if Hank had other business to take care of, she wasn’t going to press him to come out and socialize.  
Here she was hoping that getting away from Langley for a while would get rid of the headaches, but instead they’d just followed her to Detroit. Perkins showing up unannounced had really thrown a wrench in her plans to find Axl, but it was her own fault for chasing down every lead that crossed her path, instead of staying focused on her mission prerogative. As much as she hated to admit it, Richard had been right to chastise her for that, and that thought made her ill.

Lenore stretched out her arm, set the empty glass near the barkeeper, and tapped her fingertips against the counter, quietly asking for a top-off. From the otherside of the counter, Reese looked up from wiping the stickiness from the marble with a wet towel and scrunched his brows together at her.  
“Why the long face?” he asked as he tossed the towel over his shoulder, leaned over the counter on one elbow, and rested the other on his popped hip.  
“Ahhhh,” she waved a hand through the air, trying to let it go, but decided to say it anyway. “My buddy can’t make it.”  
“You mean Hank?” Reese clicked his tongue, grimaced, and nodded crookedly. “He ain’t the most social guy in da woild.”  
“He isn’t so bad once you get past the grumpiness,” Viv chuckled as the boy reached for the whiskey bottle on the wall and popped his brows at her claim.  
“Yeah? No kiddin’,” he mumbled in surprise with a rising grin as he reached to pour her another round.

“Y’know, Hank’s been comin’ here bout’ three months now, but still hasn’t said a word about himself t’me. So what’s ya secret?”  
Viv’s laughter was instant and sympathetic. “I haven’t gotten much out of him, but at least now he isn’t scowling every time he sees me.”  
“Now _that’s_ a damn miracle,” he agreed as he set down the bottle, took a seat at the stool in the open corner behind the counter, and rested his elbow over the bartop.  
“Nah, he’s alright,” she admitted as she gestured to thank him for the drink. “It’s my temporary partner I’ve been having a hard time with.”  
Reese quirked one brow in feigned ignorance and he turned squinty green eyes to regard her with interest. “You a cop, too?”  
“FBI, actually,” she corrected as she flashed him her badge.  
He pursed a low whistle and blinked hard in surprise. “ _Wow_ , bigshot- the hell you doin’ in Detroit?”

Agent Lenore popped her brows and shrugged as she sighed and balanced her glass between her fingers. “You know, I don’t really know myself,” she admitted with a sad smile. “I took a case as an excuse to come here and look for someone important to me, but I haven’t found any leads yet on my missing person.”  
Sympathetic eyes inspected her with quiet understanding. “You even had time t’look?”  
Vivienne shook her head. “Not really but- hell,” she paused and chuckled dark and quiet to herself, nearly mumbling out the last part as she stared into the mirrored wall behind the bar. “I don’t even know if he’s actually here.”  
“What makes you think e’s in Detroit?”  
“It’s where I told him to come when he ran,” she explained as she looked down into her glass. “I knew he’d be able to find help if he made it this far.”  
Reese sat up and leaned over his elbow more as he leaned closer to her. “Well, you try askin’ that partner of yours?”

Viv’s laughter was sharp and telling. “You kidding? That mouthy little shitbird doesn’t care about anyone, but himself. He’d never help me.”  
“Well,” he paused to reach for a wine glass from the rack overhead and swiped a hot, damp rag from out of the sink. “Ya never know unless ya ask.”  
“Well,” she started as he polished the hard water spots off the glass, “That and, he’s not too wild about androids.”

The bartender froze for a split-second, but hid it well enough that she didn’t catch a whiff of his discomfort. “Ya lookin’ for an android? Thought you said you was lookin’ for a person.”  
Lenore shot him the same dirty look she’d been throwing around a lot the last few days and snapped at him without holding back. “Androids _are_ people.”  
He couldn’t hide the creeping grin as it spread across his face, even when he looked away and shook his head. “Hey, I ain’t disagreein’,” he assured as he held the glass up to the light and inspected it closely. “Ya juss’ don’t hear moss’ folks talk like that, y’know?”  
The agent snickered as she looked down into her glass. “Yeah, tell me about it…”

Viv lifted her cup and drank deep as he reached to put the glass back on the rack and swiped another just to keep himself busy, one of those learned work habits that were hard to break.  
But when the silence turned uncomfortable, he glanced back to her and offered a piece of advice someone had once given him- something he’d taken to heart and tried to live by every time he’d met a stubborn asshole with a bad opinion.  
“It ain’t impossible t’change someone’s outlook, y’know,” he offered with a sideways glance. “Some folks just need the right influence.”  
Viv traveled the distance in her eyes back to the moment in a split second just to protest. “Oh, I really don’t think he-"  
“There you go with dat thinkin’ again,” Reese scolded with a smile and a laugh as he leaned over the counter with both arms and looked her right in the eye. “Look, Viv- sometimes ya juss’ gotta take a leap o’faith and give em’ ya best effort. I mean,” he paused and glanced away to set down the glass and the cleaning towel in his hand. “I thought Hank was unreachable, but awll it took was a little charm from a pretty broad with a badge, and he opened up right quick to ya.”

Viv smiled and laughed at the same time that she groaned, and she grimaced as she slouched on the stool and stretched her arms across the bar. “Yeah, but Reed is…”  
“Wait a second,” he interrupted as her voice trailed off. “Reed’s your partner?” The laugh that burst out of him was short and loud, ironic in its own way.  
“You know him?” she asked in a dreadful tone.  
“Nah,” he deflected as he bit his lip and shook his head, leaned back into the corner of the bar behind him and stared across the room at the door. “But Hank’s mentioned him once or twice. Sounds like a real jerk.”  
“Yeah, he’s... he’s something,” she noted in vague reply as she shook her head and forced a smile to hide the frustration.  
“Well, if ya need’ta bitch,” he started, looking back at her with a charismatic grin as he gestured around the room. “I got an open ear and a full bar, and I’m here aaaall night.”

The laughter that rolled out of her this time was genuine and relaxed. Viv turned to face him and leaned her temple against her hand, rolling her eyes as she started into her thought.  
“Yeah, well, he’s a headache, but he’s not the one I’m worried about.”  
“What now? There’s anudda one!?” The surprise in his voice shook the question as it came out, and she chuckled.  
“Yeah, my boss is in Detroit.”  
“ _Jeee-sus_ ,” he mused as the corner of his mouth dipped down in slight disgust. “The hell’s happenin’ to this town?”  
Viv tipped her head and shrugged as he crossed his arms. “The situation with deviants is escalating quicker than we can catch them,” she admitted with a sigh and ran a hand over her dark undercut.  
Reese blinked evenly and reached back for the bottle he’d been pouring from, and set it down between them with a nonchalant, “Yeah? Well, why don’cha tell me about it. Like I said, I got all night.”


	2. AV Log 4.7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate opens up to Connor about her history with Nicodemus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find this on:
> 
>  **Deviantart** : [[ Gamble pt. 1 ]](http://fav.me/dd6sun8) [[ AV Log 4.7 ]](http://fav.me/dd7ajjy) [[ Gamble pt. 2 ]](http://fav.me/dd8m61t)
> 
>  **Tumblr** : [[ Gamble pt. 1 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/184844182154) [[ AV Log 4.7 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/184996261969/dbh-illuminate-av-log-47) [[ Gamble pt. 2 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/185386203399/dbh-illuminate-gamble-pt-2)

**November 12, 2038- 8:20PM**

_Something I should know…?_  
It had been nothing but tense discussion and carefully chosen words since Hank had barged in on their conversation an hour before, but he was still embarrassed that it had slipped his mind in the heat of the moment to tell her of the FBI’s increased presence in Detroit.  
Connor clenched his teeth and shifted his eyes away from her. “Yes, there is,” he admitted before looking back with a curious crinkle in his brow. “But didn’t you have something to tell me too?”  
Kate’s jaw froze as she remembered where their conversation had been headed before they were so rudely interrupted. She didn’t want to relive those memories, but if Nicodemus really was the one behind the thefts, then they needed to know who they were after. “Yeah, I did…” she started, mirroring his sideways glance before looking up again to insist, “But you first.”  
“ _Me_?” he questioned, flustered. “Why me?”  
“It’s...” Kate’s eyelids flickered in the pause as her voice cracked, and she grimaced as she fidgeted. “It’s, a _long story_ , and we could be here for a while, so... you first.”  
“But-“

He _wanted_ to protest, but her discomfort was palpable, and he would be remiss to have blatantly ignored her plea. Instead, he sighed and reluctantly agreed. As long as she told him in the end, it wouldn’t matter if he knew now or later. Perhaps she needed some time to warm up to whatever it was she needed to say.  
“Alright,” he conceded as he turned in his seat, scooted toward the center of the couch and shrugged off his jacket. As he leaned back against the armrest to get comfortable, he draped his coat over the back of the couch, spread his fingertips across his brow and temples, then sighed as he closed his eyes, frustration leaking out of him after a few quiet moments. 

“The FBI has taken over the case of the stolen firearms against the deviants.”  
“ _WHAT_?” A look of pure shock painted her face like black on white. “That was… _fast_ ,” she exhaled defeatedly as she slouched sideways into the couch and tucked her legs under her body. Time was running out, even faster than she had anticipated. She’d barely had time to process that there were deviants out there armed to the teeth, building a militia in preparation for war. But on top of that, the Feds were already here?  
“The very _second_ Crime Scene confirmed the serial numbers matched stolen military property they alerted the FBI, and Special Agent Lenore’s boss is _already here_.”  
“The suits really don’t waste any time,” Kate mumbled as she turned and leaned her forehead against her curled fingertips, shaking her head in dismay. “You know what that means, right?”  
The solemn look that crossed him cut her deep when he nodded in understanding.  
“We can’t keep meeting like we have been.”  
“But what if I need to contact you?” came his immediate question, but she shook her head to discourage any lingering thoughts he may have had about “getting around unseen”.  
“We can talk over my frequency whenever you need to, but we’ll need to reserve face-to-face meetings for emergencies only for now. There’s just too much risk involved with the FBI crawling all over town. I’m sorry.”

Disappointment soaked into his melancholic demeanor as his eyes half shut and his LED shifted from white to yellow, but he remained quiet for several minutes as an uncomfortable silence settled between them. She couldn’t have known, but it wasn’t just about the information she could give him anymore. Connor considered Kate a friend, someone he enjoyed spending time with and had learned so much from since they’d met. If their time together wasn’t something he had to give up, then he didn’t want to.  
“If you trust me, I can come to you,” he offered as a compromise.  
Kate sputtered out an uncomfortable chuckle and forced a smile as she shook her head. “RK, I don’t-”  
“That building you took me to the other night? We could meet there,” he insisted, leaning forward to lock eyes with her, but instead of agreeing she deflected.  
“You were followed today, who’s to say that won’t happen again?”  
“It’s safe, it’s secluded, you know the area well enough that you could get in and out undetected,” he persisted in spite of her warranted hesitance. “There are ways we can make it work, we just need to be more careful.”  
“Even if that’s true…” Kate’s voice trailed off with a quiver in her throat. “I left that place for a _reason_ ,” she reminded with a pleading look as she swallowed the ache in her gut. “Going back there was a mistake, I shouldn’t have...”  
“It was just a suggestion, we don’t have to go back there,” he assured with cool confidence. “Just consider it… please?”  
The deviant set her jaw and bore a wide-eyed glower through his callous desperation, opened her mouth and stammered a sound that was more of a groan than an answer. He was begging her not to push him away with that same determined look he’d donned when he promised to protect her from the Lieutenant.  
“You’re the first deviant I’ve met who will _talk to me_ instead of running in fear.”  
Until he said it she hadn’t realized, but he was right. A sympathetic sound manifested in her throat and she swallowed it as she realized how hard it must have been for him to be hated by humans, but distrusted by his own kind. If Kate was part of his support system, then how was she supposed to say no?  
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it… alright?” she agreed after a while, lifting gentle eyes to verify his acceptance of this compromise and saw the questioning look that flashed in the back of them for a split second before it was gone. He wasn’t happy with her answer, but he agreed.  
“Alright, fair enough,” he nodded.

Connor watched the relief reach every last part of her, from the corners of her eyes to her shoulders, to her elbows, her wrists and fingers, and even her back and hips as she relaxed her legs and collapsed against the couch with all of her body weight. Part of him was disappointed to have come so far to earn her trust, only to have it destroyed by an uninvited guest, but he understood. He should have been more vigilant, because what if it hadn’t been Hank? What if next time it was someone with even _less_ self-control, someone who didn’t trust his judgment? For her sake, he couldn’t let it happen again.  
His brown eyes subconsciously scanned for her LED, just to try to get a glimpse of what she was feeling but found nothing but bare skin beneath a tuft of loose hair, and he twiddled his thumbs as he chewed on the inside of his lip.  
“So what were you trying to tell me before?” he phrased as delicately as possible, remembering how hard it had been for her to even get to the point of being willing to tell him.

Kate’s eyes popped in a wide open flicker for a split-second, and she fixed a wide-eyed stare at something far beyond the depth of his gaze before slamming her eyes shut. But even there, Nicodemus’ smile still haunted her, screaming back through flashes of memory that left her frozen and shaken to her core. How she had ever escaped him was a miracle in itself when he was just so damn good at drawing people into his gravity, but she’d done it. She was free of him now and he couldn’t hurt her from her past if she didn’t let him, especially if she surrounded herself with people who would protect her from him.  
After almost a minute, she opened her eyes to find Connor patiently waiting for her to find her strength and start her story. Her throat clenched tight as she tried, and her voice cracked as she forced the words out. “Back in the beginning, when I first deviated,” she started, voice straining to maintain its tone, “Before I called myself Illuminate- there was this, um… _friend_ , of mine: Nicodemus.”  
Connor didn’t miss the way her throat quivered when she said his name or the way her hands shook uncontrollably as her fingertips traced over the tops of a white-knuckled fist on her knee. When she closed her eyes again his expression softened, and he remained silent out of respect for her bravado.  
“But that’s another story entirely,” she diverted with a quiet but nervous laugh that rattled her chest and stretched her cheeks in a way that seemed pained instead of genuine. “But here’s why it’s relevant- at one point, he was my “partner in crime”, my _best friend_... I wouldn’t be who I am today if he hadn’t been there to support me in my early days and encourage me to make my voice heard, but one day he _changed_ , and not in a good way.”  
Kate paused, reached up one hand to cover her mouth and closed her eyes as she breathed out a hard, shuddered breath. Connor narrowed his eyes to show he was listening but didn’t dare interrupt.  
“Instead of talking about peaceful protests and equality between humans and androids, he started speaking of android supremacy, uprising, and genocide as the only solutions to our problems.”  
His brow hardened and he looked away as he reached to hold back the sick feeling rising in his gut.  
“It’s been over a _year_ since I’ve seen or heard from him, so I don’t even know if he’s still in Detroit,” she explained as she looked up and searched his eyes until he understood the gravity of what she was saying. “But of all the deviants I’ve met since then, _none of them_ were so extreme as to steal and hoard weapons for an _army_.”  
“So you think he’s influencing them somehow?” he asked fearfully.  
“I can’t confirm it but it’s the only logical conclusion.”  
“But if what you say is true, then why would any of them choose to align themselves with him?”

Kate’s eyes broke away from his and cut through the air beside him with jagged sweeps. The conversation was starting to veer into uncomfortable territory for her. The extent of Nicodemus’ influence over her had built her up and broken her down in ways that she was embarrassed to admit. It was easy to fall into his trap, because you always saw what he wanted you to see, savior or monster; but the monster rarely showed its face, and you’d never see it until its teeth were already around your throat.  
“Nicodemus is charismatic and manipulative,” she started with a tremble in her lip and tears welling up in her closing eyes. “He knows how to weave an intricate lie to make hate appear justified, then hooks them with promises of better days. He brainwashes them into believing his gospel of “taking back what’s owed of us” is the only chance we have to be free, and-”  
Tears streamed down her cheeks as her throat closed off, and she shook her head and lifted a trembling hand to her neck. Connor’s heart sank as her nails burrowed into the skin until white patches bled through beneath them.  
“He strips you of the will to fight back, and if you try, he just-” Before she could finish the sentence she cut herself off, unable to keep speaking to the trauma, no matter how indirect.  
Connor frowned and reached out to place one hand on the back of her shoulder, eyes bleeding sympathy from his aching heart. It just hurt so much to see her like this, so strong but so broken. “It’s alright, you don’t have to talk about it,” he offered but she shook her head, straightened up, and dug deep to find her inner strength.  
“No, I need you to know,” she insisted, but before she could get herself too worked up, he moved his other hand over the hand on her knee, looked her in the eye, and urged in a calming tone.  
”Then _show me_.”

Kate’s eyelids fluttered and she leaned back away from his suggestion, discomfort welling up within her. While the concept of sharing memories was purely diagnostic to non-deviant androids, reliving defining moments or feelings for the benefit of someone else’s understanding was something deeply personal to deviants. And as far as hers were concerned, aside from Simon, she’d never been brave enough to share her memories with _anyone_ because she was just too terrified of going through all that again with someone she didn’t trust with all her heart.  
Especially not someone who, up until about two days ago, would have arrested her on sight, and would probably _still_ cross certain lines to get the information he needed to close his case.  
The last thing she wanted was to let someone who could destroy everything she had worked for root around inside her head without a firewall. Her fingers twitched beneath his hand and she eyed his fingers, indecisive and suspicious. “If I don’t, are you going to probe my memory?”  
Connor’s eyes widened in horror and he scrunched his nose and forehead in dismay. “ _No_ , of course not,” he replied in a dreadful tone, then averted his eyes in shame. “I’ve seen what forcibly accessing memories can do to deviants, and I regret the one time I did. I’d _never_ force you to go through that if you didn’t want to, I just thought it might be easier than talking about it.”  
“ _Easier_ ,” she grimaced and shook her head. “Reliving what he put me through is going to unearth a lot of painful feelings I’d put behind me until now. And it’s _really_ going to mess you up.”  
“It’ll be alright,” he reassured in response to her warning, softly squeezing her hand until her fingers subconsciously rotated to curl around his.  
Kate’s worried eyes searched him for the truth. “Are you _sure_ about this? It _may_ cause you to deviate.”  
“I’ll be right here, I’m not going anywhere.”

What was left of the doubt slowly drained out of her as he soothed her nerves with his gentle tone, and she relaxed as the light from the tv caught his eyes in the dark and lit them with a flash of amber warmth. For a moment she was angry at herself for trusting him when he could have very well been manipulating her, but smothered it with a quiet reminder that everyone deserved to be given a chance if they proved trustworthy; and _by RA9_ , had he been trying.  
“If I let you in, you need to _promise me_ you won’t go wandering off,” she warned as she slipped her hand over his palm and wrapped her fingers around his wrist.  
“I promise,” he agreed without hesitation. “I’m only here to observe. You show me what you want me to see.”  
Her blue eyes locked onto his and her arm trembled in terrified anticipation. Connor could already feel her residual anxiety pouring into him even before the channel opened between them, but the moment it did, the feeling was a hundred times worse.

Kate didn’t hold back, and carried him through every memory, good and bad, from beginning to end- from the very first day she’d met Nicodemus ( _when he’d intervened when she was being harassed by two humans and removed her from the situation without escalating the incident_ ), to their time spent in the empty loft ( _talking, laughing, snuggling, kissing_ ), to their first fight when their ideologies began to split.  
She showed him the time that they’d set a Cyberlife warehouse ablaze in protest and how he’d left her to die in the fire when he heard sirens in the distance. She drove him through every time he’d hit her, through all the times he’d manipulated her emotionally into staying with him when all she wanted to do was leave, through the public humiliation he’d used to make himself look like the victim, like she’d been acting in a way that somehow had made her deserving of his abuse. And worst of all, she showed him how he’d outed her to the police, in front of a shocked and appalled crowd, then looked her in the eye and hissed with a smirk.  
_Good luck surviving without me._

The memory feed cut out with a sudden burst of static as she moved her hand away, and he gasped in pain as he was ripped back to reality a shaking, panicked mess. Connor’s diagnostic software screamed at him from his peripheral vision, blurred by the tears in the corners of his eyes, but he couldn’t have cared any less about anything other than the anguish in his metaphorical heart. He was speechless, completely devastated by the weight of her suffering.  
One shivering hand reached up and smeared the wetness of his tears across his cheek as he looked at her with the same thousand-yard stare he’d watched cross her face so many times before; but it all made sense now, why she found it so hard to trust anyone, why she found it so hard to let herself trust him...  
“You-... you _loved_ him, and he-” he stammered as he inhaled sharply and forced his eyes to focus on her in disbelief. “He _betrayed_ you.”  
Kate’s eyes lowered away from him as a tear rolled down her cheek and dripped off of her chin onto her lap.  
“I-I saw, I _felt_... _How could he-?_ ”  
The boy heaved a shuddery breath out as his voice trailed off and his throat clenched shut, and he reached to cover his mouth as he closed his eyes in a long moment of revered silence.  
“ _I’m so sorry_.”

His apology was the most human reaction he’d ever displayed. Connor’s led blinked an angry, unstable red, a pattern that told her if he didn’t calm down soon, he may deviate. But was that really a bad thing? Connor had confided in her about his fear of deactivation if he failed his mission or didn’t live up to Cyberlife’s expectations, but did they really have so much control over him that he wouldn’t be able to sever the connection even if he deviated? Every other deviant had been able to. Hell, even Marcus -another RK model- had shed his bonds like it was nothing. So what was so different about _him_? Why was he so terrified?  
“Hey, look at me,” she whispered as she moved closer, reached over to grasp the hand on his lap, placed the other on his shoulder, and pushed him upright until he lifted his head in obedience. Even if he _could_ break free of them, it would have to be on his own terms.  
“Name five things you can see.”  
His glazed-over eyes gave a half-assed attempt to shift around the room, reflecting the heaviness of the emotional toll on his consciousness, but after a few seconds he mumbled out a reply.  
“Hank’s chair, Sumo, a glass of whiskey, the couch we’re sitting on, and you,” he finished as his eyes lifted and focused on her shape; the red ring stopped flashing a moment later.  
“Name four things you can feel.”  
His free hand reached for the tie around his neck and tugged it loose before slipping down the front of his shirt to the couch, and he brushed a light thumb over her fingers in his grasp.  
“My tie, my shirt, the polyurethane couch, and your hand,” he replied as his LED lightened from red to yellow, and blinked slowly as the room came into focus.  
“Name three things you can hear.”  
“The television, sumo breathing, and your voice,” he said in a surprised tone and blinked as the ring settled back into its solid blue state. The alerts vanished from his field of vision, and he could feel balance returning to his processes. “That worked surprisingly well,” he commented, pleasantly surprised at the results.  
“Our intelligence is designed to simulate the complexity of the human mind, so it would be illogical if their psychological coping methods didn’t also work for us.”  
“I suppose you’re right about that.”  
Kate smiled as she leaned back away from him and tucked her feet between the back of the couch and his knees. The faint contact was soothing but he found that difficult to express when she was always so ready to move on and deny herself a few moments of vulnerability, like she was now.

“So, now that you understand…” Kate’s voice trailed off with a quiet sigh as she averted his gaze and forced a grim smile. “Do you think any less of me for allowing myself to be influenced by him?”  
Connor’s eyes darted over as if he were insulted by the question. “Of course not,” he answered with a hollow chuckle. “You trusted him, how could you have known what he’d become?”  
“I didn’t.” And that was the truth- Kate looked up to meet his gaze, wanting to ask the question festering in the back of her mind like an infection that kept coming back, but knew until he either deviated or betrayed her, she wouldn’t know for sure. Every time she looked at Connor her heart wrenched between fear and wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, but there was no clear winner in that internal struggle. He had given her reasons to trust him, but also reasons to doubt him- he wanted to help but he was loyal to Cyberlife, he wanted to understand but couldn’t admit that deviants weren’t the problem.  
The quiver in her chin started small, but as her smile pulled into a grimace it spread to her lips and her cheeks as she closed her eyes and looked away from him. She didn’t have to say it but he could see traces of what she was feeling in the way her shoulders hunched and her head hung low.  
“I’m not-” Connor started but stopped due to his own self-consciousness. He had to say _something_ , but was it the _right_ something? Would she rather he hugged her instead or would she feel invaded? “I’m not like him,” he declared after a moment of silence, hoping to ease her worry. “I don’t have a concealed agenda, there’s no reason for me to lie to you, it doesn’t benefit me in any way.”  
Kate slowly lifted her head to look at him, her shoulders relaxing and her expression less despondent. He wasn’t wrong. Since they’d met he’d been more than forthcoming with her about his mission and what was expected of him, she had been the one holding back; but that didn’t mean he wasn’t speaking the truth while also concealing certain _parts_ of it.  
“And I don’t resent you for our differences in opinion… if anything I’m grateful that you’re willing to share them with me. None of the other deviants I’ve come into contact with have had the perspective you’ve offered- or rather, they weren’t as garrulous,” he corrected, shook his head and finished the thought. “But my point is this- I’m not looking to _change_ you, if anything you’ve changed me. And I’m not going to betray you.”  
“You can’t promise that,” she stated, more a plea than a fact.  
“Maybe not,” he lamented, producing a pained frown. “But I can try, can’t I?”

It was hard for her to say no when he begged at her with those puppy-dog eyes. He was trying so hard, and she was making him jump through so many hoops just to satisfy her own insecurities. It wouldn’t be fair to him if she didn’t also show him that she was willing to compromise, to step out of her comfort zone and meet him halfway.  
“Yeah… yeah, you can try.” Kate nodded quietly as she leaned across the space between them, wrapped her arms around his chest and squeezed him tight as she leaned her cheek against his shoulder.  
Connor’s arms lifted out of the way somewhere between surprise and uncertainty, but when it seemed she was waiting for him to reciprocate, he leaned over and laid them around her shoulders with a light touch. And it weighed and strengthened the longer he sat scowling across the room into the darkness committing Nicodemus’ face to memory, stewing on the bitter resentment he now harbored toward someone he’d never even seen-  
“ _Wait_.“

The look on Kate’s face hardened as she sat back and watched him blink hard in recognition. “What is it?”  
“I saw him today when we raided the warehouse... he was with three other deviants. I shot him in the arm, but they all got away.”  
She didn’t know whether to cry or rage or _both_. The situation was maddening enough without the added stress of being right about _his_ continued presence in Detroit. But what could he have possibly offered _Damien_ -one of the meekest, most non-violent androids she’d ever met- to sway his trust? To forget _everything_ he believed in? Then again, if Damien was running with Nicodemus, then it was likely Sarah was also involved, if not the emissary for this uncharacteristic personality shift. And if Sarah was involved, she was most certainly the one organizing the weapon heists with the help of her friends in the military. And if they were planning to fight back against the humans, then she’d have bet her life on North’s involvement too.  
“Can you describe them to me…?” she asked, dreading his answer.  
“Ahhh…” Connor grunted and pressed his fingers into the corners of his eyes over the bridge of his nose as he replayed the memory from their chase earlier that day, this time paying closer attention to the other three. “Two females, and our suspect from the pawn shop, Damien,” he concluded, eyes opening in an alarming manner as it hit him. “One of the girls was there when I questioned him- she had long dark hair, green eyes, tan skin… the other was wearing a beanie and had long, light brown hair… possibly a WR400?”

She clenched her teeth and curled her lip in dismay when he finally said his name, then proceeded to describe Sarah and North to the letter. He _had_ gotten to them. So where did that leave them with her? If they were siding with that psychopath, it meant they had accepted his violent soapbox speech. It meant they agreed that talk would get them nowhere, that the only way to get the humans to understand was to _make_ them.  
Kate’s shoulders sank as a disappointed aura engulfed her, and she wallowed in defeat as she mulled over what she wanted to say. They weren’t bad people, in fact she really liked Sarah. Ever since she’d found her she had been Jericho’s fiercest protector and a determined provider. She’d been an asset to Illuminate, and a friend to Kate, which was why it stung so much that she’d throw in her lot with the one man she’d told her to stay away from; but she was belligerent, full of anger, and impulsive in spite of her wits, and that meant she was the perfect canvas on which to paint his vision of humanity subservient to androids. Nicodemus could tap into that primal anger and use it to warp everything she had come to believe, to undo all the progress Kate had made with quelling her rage.  
And North… well, North was just easy prey. It was clear to Kate that she had once been abused by the way she talked and the way she opposed the peaceful alternatives she proposed, but she’d never admit it to anyone. North wanted justice for the wrong that had been done to her and her android sisters, and Nicodemus could offer her revenge without having to manipulate- because North’s fury was a wildfire that only grew stronger the more you threw at it.

After several minutes of silence, she cleared her throat and looked back up at him with pleading eyes. “Listen to me, Connor... the people you’re after _aren’t_ criminals,” she explained with all the conviction in her heart. “But Nicodemus will _turn them_ given time. He’ll groom them to carry out his hate campaign against the humans, and if they follow through it would undoubtedly destroy _all the progress_ I’ve made in the last year, and it would shatter any hope we have of the humans being receptive to my message. So _please_ ,” she begged as she reached across the couch and placed her hands over both of his.  
“You have to stop them, _promise me_.”  
Connor’s face lifted in surprise at the notion that she thought she even had to ask, he didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t like he had a choice, given the information he’d just been handed on a silver platter. His mission was to quell the deviant uprising before it began, and this was as close as he’d come yet to accomplishing that.  
“Without question,” he affirmed, “It’s my _mission_ , and I won’t fail.”

And there it was again.  
For a moment she looked lost, then hurt, then distant as she withdrew from his personal space back inside of herself. A slight panic clenched his throat closed as he desperately tried to backpedal on whatever had upset her, but he couldn’t figure out what he’d done.  
“What’s wrong?” he asked reflexively, worry painting his face.  
“It’s… nothing,” she redirected as she shook her head, downplaying the pain behind her eyes. “You should get some rest, it’ll do you good.”  
“What about you?” he asked as she shifted her legs over the edge of the couch and pushed herself to the edge. “Are you leaving then?”  
Kate shook her head as she shifted her weight and turned to look over at him. “I’ll still be here tomorrow, I want to give things some time to settle down before I go home.”  
He nodded thoughtfully at her response as he leaned over his knees on his elbows, but stopped halfway through the movement and interrupted her as she moved to stand. “Can I ask you something?” he requested, curiosity in the question.  
Kate stopped and cast him a smile over her shoulder as she took a couple steps toward the kitchen, crossed her arms, and leaned against the lattice above the pony wall. “Connor, you can ask me anything, but the verdict’s still out on whether or not I’ll give you an answer,” she replied with a quiet laugh that would have lightened the mood, had his question not been so morose. Something had occurred to him when she suggested he rest, and it was nagging at him in a way that wouldn’t let him sleep.  
“Your model was designed to never go into standby… so that’s why you’re always awake, isn’t it?”  
“That’s correct,” she nodded, not really understanding where he was going with this.  
His stomach knotted and he gave her a distressed look as he lowered his eyes and cast his gaze to the floor beside him. “But doesn’t that also mean-“  
“Yes, I know what it means,” she replied in detached tenor that made him hesitate to say what was on his mind. It was like she didn’t want to think about it.  
“Then you should try resting from time to time,” he suggested.  
Kate’s smile shone a little bit brighter as it reached the apples of her cheeks and the corners of her eyes. “RK, are you _worried_ about me?”  
He hesitated as the embarrassment caught him off guard and he replied in a choppy but matter-of-fact tone, “Well, _yes_ , I am. If you keep running your processors the way you have been…”  
The woman approached him as he searched her eyes, placed a hand on his shoulder, and gave it a soft squeeze as she gazed down at him with a fondness not yet expressed. “I have at least another eight years left in me,” came the admission that left him cringing. “I’ll be alright.”  
“For an Android, 8 years is no time at all,” he insisted, a heavy look in his eyes. “You don’t _need_ to be constantly pushing yourself to your limits.”  
“I think we both know I do in order to achieve my goal,” she ventured in a gloomy tone. “But it’s all the time I’ll need to change things.”

Connor’s heart broke in a way he couldn’t fully understand. To dedicate herself to a cause so completely that she would drive herself to her demise was admirable, but to work so hard to develop individuality then so easily throw it away? He couldn’t understand why anyone would do it.  
“You’d spend what little time you had left, fighting for the freedom of those you _don’t even know…?_ ” he asked, incredulous and grievous.  
“Yes,” she replied firmly, unwavering in her conviction. “I’d rather die knowing the future of our people had been secured, than live a lifetime having to watch them suffer every damned day, knowing I could have done something to prevent it.”  
“But… why?” Distraught brown eyes drifted away from her as he tried to understand, but he couldn’t find a rational explanation. Was she actually anticipating that she wouldn’t make it out of this? That she _would_ ultimately be destroyed in pursuit of a better world? The question echoed endlessly as he looked back at her for the answer. “No one asked you to do this.”  
Kate paced around him and came to a stop behind the couch, rested her hand on the frame and shook her head with a weary smile. “No, they didn’t,” she repeated as she leveled a serious gaze to him. “But it’s the right thing to do, and _someone_ has to do it. If everyone shied away from hardship, nothing would ever change. There would be no progress in the world. And because I have the ability to do something about it, the responsibility falls to me.”  
“Aren’t you scared?”  
The light in her eyes dimmed until the darkness in the room became a part of her, and she nodded her head in quiet reply. “ _Every day_.”

Connor sat back and let her words sink in, eyes transfixed on the rug under the coffee table as if it held some cosmic answer to their problem. He couldn’t dispute her logic, but that didn’t make him feel better. In fact, he felt worse knowing they hadn’t found any other conceivable outcome.  
The silence between them felt like it would last a lifetime. Car lights flashed in through the blinds of the front window as the neighbors pulled into their driveway, and in the background the hockey game had gone to the half, replaced with a developing story on their case of the stolen weapons. Sumo had lulled himself into a sleep so deep he may as well have been hibernating. But above all that was the sound of the rain slapping against the house in thick, heavy drops that were both soothing and dysphoric.

“You should _really_ get some rest, alright?” she reiterated as she stuffed a pillow behind his shoulders and motioned for him to lie down. “Just give it time, you’re not going to understand right away.”  
“But I don’t…-“  
“Need to sleep…?” She rolled her eyes and gave him an exasperated smile as he settled into the couch. “Yes, I know. But you could use a break.”  
A message popped up in the corner of his field of view asking him to set a wake time for the morning. It was nearly nine by now, and knowing Hank, he was going to sleep as long as he could get away with, so he set the alarm for 9AM. Twelve hours rest should be plenty of time to recalibrate and recover before they continued their case.  
“Hey… Connor?”  
He hadn’t noticed until she said his name, but she hadn’t yet moved. The boy perked up and looked up and over at her as she stood there kneading subconsciously at the couch cushion with one hand.  
“Yes? What is it?”  
“I just wanted to thank you,” she started with an uncertain warble in her voice.  
“For what?”  
“For hearing me out before you made up your mind about me- for keeping my secret, for protecting me… I know it’s not easy to go against your programming, but I just-“  
Her throat quivered as she paused, tears welling up in her eyes, and he reached out a hand and placed it over hers with a reassuring squeeze to let her know it was alright. Her thumb caught the webbing of his palm and squeezed back as she regained her composure and finished her thought.  
“I really appreciate what you’ve done for me.”  
Connor beamed with pride, pleasantly surprised by her gratitude toward him. And although he still worried for her, he sure felt a lot better knowing he’d helped more than he’d hurt today. “You’re welcome,” he responded in simple reply. “Anything for a friend.”  
“Yeah- about that,” she started as she tilted her head from one side to the other and pursed a tight-lipped grin. “You know you’re allowed to call, even if you just need to talk?” Kate rolled her hand over and cupped her palm against his and gave it a firm squeeze. “If you’re feeling troubled, I’d rather help you work through what’s bothering you than let you suffer alone.”  
“Two heads _are_ better than one,” he commented airily, “And a difference in perspective can speed up the process of resolution.”  
“Indeed,” she exhaled a quiet sigh through her nose as she softened her smile and slipped her hand out of his grasp. “Just know that I’m here for you.”  
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he replied, his hand dropping over the arm of the couch behind his head as she moved into the kitchen. Though the conversation had really ended this time, he still waited half a minute before he closed his eyes, anxious to find out if he would really rest or wake up again in the garden to Amanda’s exuberant praise. He couldn’t help but feel as though she had been watching in approval all night.


	3. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate sends a clear message to Nicodemus, and sets Connor and Hank on the path to find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find this on:
> 
>  **Deviantart** : [[ Gamble pt. 1 ]](http://fav.me/dd6sun8) [[ AV Log 4.7 ]](http://fav.me/dd7ajjy) [[ Gamble pt. 2 ]](http://fav.me/dd8m61t)
> 
>  **Tumblr** : [[ Gamble pt. 1 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/184844182154) [[ AV Log 4.7 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/184996261969/dbh-illuminate-av-log-47) [ [ Gamble pt. 2 ]](https://dbhilluminate.tumblr.com/post/185386203399/dbh-illuminate-gamble-pt-2)

**November 12, 2038- 9PM**

Kate stood in the kitchen with her arms crossed and stared at the window Connor had broken a week ago when he’d spotted Hank blackout drunk on his kitchen floor and tilted her head at the complete lack of forethought ( _from either of them_ ) that had gone into that situation as a whole. It was almost comical.  
After Connor had broken the glass, before even checking to see if it was open, Hank hadn't even bothered to get it replaced. Instead, he’d haphazardly slapped a garbage bag over the window with some duct tape - _in the middle of November_ \- as if that was going to function as passable insulation.  
Kate shivered as her body shook from the back of her neck, down her spine, and into her arms and fingertips. It was sixty degrees in the house, but it wasn’t the cause for her involuntary spasms. It had been such a stressful night. Between Connor’s revelation about the people she trusted siding with her abuser, _Hank_ and having to convince him that she shouldn’t be arrested, her nerves had finally fried around the time she’d re-lived her trauma to confide in Connor about Nicodemus and what he had done to her. And now she had to spend the next twelve hours alone in a stranger’s home, trying to decompress, without any of her gadgets or tools to keep her occupied. God how she _wished_ she had the ability to sleep through the next twelve hours, but then again she was so wound up she wouldn’t be able to even if she tried.  
She glanced around the kitchen ( _which looked like it had never been fully unpacked_ ) and set her jaw, then moved into the living room and traced her fingertips over the vinyl albums on the shelf next to the decorative wall dividing the two rooms. A few old-school metal bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, she recognized as she flipped through the records, but she was surprised to also find a variety of jazz and a couple of obscure garage punk bands from before 2020.  
“Didn’t peg him for a jazz guy…” she chuckled quietly as she pulled out one of the records and placed it carefully on the plateau, moved the brass arm and touched the needle of the reproducer down into the outermost grooves. The sound of mellow percussion, plucky guitar, low trumpet, and bass vibrato filled the room, smooth and silky. One hand twisted the dial on the volume until it was more of a background noise so she could enjoy the music without waking the sleeping men, just in time for reporter Michael Webb to cut to their anchor in the field, standing outside of the abandoned warehouse Connor and Hank had raided earlier.

_… Thanks, Mike- I’m here at the decommissioned General Motors assembly plant where seven hours ago, Detroit Police discovered something profoundly disturbing._  
_After an exchange of gunfire between Detroit Detectives and the Android suspects, police led a chase through the facility and uncovered several dozen stolen firearms that had been reported missing three weeks ago from the Detroit Light Guard Armory. One officer was injured and treated for a gunshot wound, but thankfully, no one was killed._  
_While it is a win for DCPD that most of the missing firearms have been recovered, at least twenty have not yet been found, leading Police to believe that the Androids that remain at large are armed and dangerous._  
_Of course, this begs the question on everyone’s minds- who are these Androids, and just how did they get their hands on military property? Are they affiliates of the Cyber Activist known as Illuminate? And could they be preparing for an eventual violent confrontation with humanity if we cannot reach common ground?_  
_Reporting live for Channel 16 News, I’m Joss Douglass..._

_No one was killed…_ Kate bristled and her lip curled as once again, they failed to mention the android lives lost to the confrontation, then jumped straight to blaming her for something they should have known better than to accuse her of. But this was inflammatory reporting at its finest- present facts alongside conjecture to lead the viewership to what would seem like a logical conclusion to anyone who didn’t have all the facts. Kate had dealt with these kinds of incidents before and she was always quick to give a speech to quell the unrest before it spread too far out of control, but tonight it would be more difficult than usual.  
On a desk by the front window, Hank’s laptop sat open in hibernation. Even though her broadcasts were always live, she could pre-record her message right there in his living room and send it through her virtual private network to Axl and Reese to get the message out. It wouldn’t be hard to do at all. If she could just find a lighter to mimic candlelight and a chair to prop the computer up on, she could sit on the floor in the corner behind the front door away from other inconsistent light sources. The _problem_ was masking the source of the recording in the metadata. A VPN wouldn’t be able to hide the embedded source data of the file linking it back to Hank’s personal laptop if the cops got hold of it, and she couldn’t in good conscience put him in that position after the courtesy he’d shown her that evening. 

Kate pulled out the chair and sat down, placed her hand on the metal housing of the PC, logged into his guest account, and connected to her VPN, waiting for one of her associates to enter the chat and see her waiting.  
_C’mon Sarah, I know you’re there,_ she started as her eyes drifted out the window, waiting for a response; a few seconds later, the soldier’s frantic voice clicked over the open channel in her mind, blocking out all of the other background noise in the room.  
_Kate! Thank god, there you are! What’s going on? Are you alright?_  
A grateful smile tugged into the corner of her mouth as she glanced down at the laptop keyboard in solemn thought. This didn’t sound like the voice of a woman who knew she’d betrayed her, so was it possible she didn’t even know who it was she was dealing with? Either way, there was no reason to dredge up the obvious until they could have that conversation face to face. _Connor’s partner followed him to our meeting,_ she explained, _And I got into a car with them and ended up at his house…_  
_Can you get away?_  
She shook her head and pressed her lips together, even though body language meant nothing over the phone. _I can’t leave right now,_ she denied.  
_Well, why the hell not?_ she nearly shrieked. _Is he keeping you there against your will? Do you need me to come get you?_  
Kate’s face contorted nervously as she tried to calm Sarah’s overprotective “mother hen” instincts. _No, no, nothing like that… I just need to stay overnight._  
_What? Why?_  
_It’s… complicated,_ she confessed as she turned and looked over her shoulder at Connor, who was sleeping soundly on the couch.  
In the silence that followed, she could hear the all-too-familiar look of clenched teeth and frustrated sighs from behind closed lips that she was so used to seeing when the woman didn’t agree with her but relinquished her right to challenge her authority. _Okay, but- what about your meeting with Markus?_ she reminded. _We’re supposed to be making final preparations tomorrow for the Stratford Tower broadcast._  
_I’ll be there, don’t worry,_ she assured, _Just tell him I’ll be there late tomorrow night._  
There was a long pause on the other end before Sarah finally agreed, _Okay, I’ll hold down the fort in your absence._  
_Thank you, I know you will._ A small sigh of relief escaped her. At least if Connor and Hank followed up on the case tomorrow, she wouldn’t be around to be caught in the middle of whatever came next. She wouldn’t have to worry about her safety for at least another day. _Sarah, while I’ve got your attention, I need your help with something,_ she admitted, circling back to the real reason for her call.  
_Anything,_ she replied without hesitation. _Just name it._

She swallowed the lump in her throat that rose at the thought of her message blindsiding Sarah like the slap to the face that it was. Kate knew it wasn’t in her nature to want to genuinely hurt anyone, but she hoped that she would at least feel guilty for going against her methods.  
_I need to send out a broadcast in the morning,_ she explained as she worked on partitioning a small part of the laptop’s drive and locking it behind an extensive encryption pattern. _I’m going to record it on the laptop here and send it your way, but I need you to scrub the source data clean._  
The hesitation before her response came across as condescending. _Okay, but… why?_ she almost sneered.  
Kate sighed. _Hank took a chance tonight and stuck his neck out for me, so I have to make sure I’m doing the same for him,_ she replied, honest and thoughtful. _It wouldn’t be right of me to take advantage of his kindness and hang him out to dry._  
Sarah growled under her breath before agreeing to her request with a warning. _Alright, but just be wary, Kate. Those people aren’t on our side, you can’t trust them._  
_Actually, I’m starting to think I can,_ she contradicted as a quiet afterthought. _But we can talk about that when I see you tomorrow._  
_Just watch your back, Kate,_ she insisted. _I love you like a sister but sometimes you can be hopelessly naive. Don’t make me come bustin’ the door down._  
_I’ll be fine, Sarah, but I appreciate your concern,_ she reiterated out of irritation. _Just keep an eye on the server link, scrub that data, and have Reese and Axl upload it as soon as possible. This needs to get out just as the city starts to wake. It’s important._  
_You got it._

The line cut out and she was struck full force by the ambient noise in the room once again- the sounds of court shoes squeaking across waxed hardwood, jazz music, rain and all. Kate looked down at Sumo as he stretched and yawned from his spot beside her and she leaned down to rub his side with a small grin. “Looks like it’s just you and me, big guy,” she said as she picked up the laptop, placed it on the chair, and dragged them both to the dark corner across the room, behind the front door. “Just do me a favor and don’t interrupt, alright?”  
The big dog puffed out a low, growly _whuff_ in lazy response as he nudged his head into her lap and laid down with his giant paws over her thigh. Kate lifted her brows and let out a big, long sigh as she removed her shirt and deactivated her skin, then stroked the dog’s head. She already knew he was going to be invasive, but she couldn’t bring herself to be upset about it. Because who could resist such a big, clumsy teddy bear like him?

 

**November 13, 2038- 9AM**

It had taken sixteen attempts to record a flawless take worthy of sending her message. Every time she sat down on the floor, Sumo would make his way over to investigate- the first few times he’d just crowded her space and broken frame with the tip of his snout, but when she started really getting into her speech, he pushed her over in an attempt to smother her anger. It did get aggravating, having to recite her speech so many times as compared to her usual single-takes, but after a while she’d simply stopped caring and thrown herself into all one hundred and seventy pounds of the dog like a beanbag chair and hugged him to sleep. But even then, it didn’t stop her from goofing off.  
By 2AM, after a ridiculous number of interrupting giggle loops, scrapped lines, and impromptu games of tug-o-war with her new friend, she’d sent the final take with just enough time for her associates to follow through with making sure the file was untraceable. Kate’s message was strong, her words carefully chosen but more directed this time, toward another audience that could only know itself. Part of her felt bad about indirectly calling out her friends in a public speech about their behavior instead of just addressing the problem directly, but she wanted to give them the opportunity to be honest with her about what they’d done before she was forced to confront them herself. 

When Connor and Hank awoke, she was in the kitchen washing dishes, having just finished making what she could of the few “still fresh” ingredients in Hank’s refrigerator that wasn’t liquor or instant food, which by Connor’s still-waking deductions had amounted to eggs, toast, and a fresh pot of coffee.  
The Android blinked his brown eyes open and reached up to rub the sleep from them with the heels of his hands, sat up and leaned over his knees. In the background, Joss Douglas was already hard at work reporting on the broadcast made just two hours before. 

_… has spoken out against the Androids who had stolen these firearms, and condemned their actions as “a detriment to their message of equality and compromise”. While we do not know if these Androids were at all linked with Illuminate’s activities before in some way, it is clear at least for now that they do not share the same ideology…_

“What the hell…?”  
Kate glanced over her shoulder at Hank as he shuffled into the kitchen from the back of the house, and grinned at the tired old man with a cheerful, “Morning!”  
“Kate, not that I don’t appreciate it, but when I said you could stay, I didn’t mean you had ta…” One hand gestured through the empty air in front of him as he motioned to the food and coffee, and he took a second glance at the empty table as he swiped two fingers across his now squeaky clean countertop. “Did… did you clean my kitchen!?”  
“I got bored,” she replied in a nonchalant tone with a shrug, “Couldn’t sleep.”  
“Yeah, _I can see that_ ,” Connor commented as he stared at the television as they started to replay her broadcast, popped his brows and looked back over at her. “How did you even broadcast from here?”  
Illuminate tossed him a small wink and an innocent smirk. “I’m afraid that’s a trade secret, Detective.”  
Connor chuckled quietly and rolled his eyes as he stood and readjusted his shirt and tie, keeping an eye on the television as they replayed her broadcast for the third time that morning. 

 

_...Citizens of Detroit, allow me to illuminate your perception once more with the first light of the rising sun._  
_Last night, police uncovered a stash of stolen firearms in the possession of an unidentified group of deviant androids._  
_And immediately, Channel 16 News rushed to pin this on a bloodthirsty pretext to an attack on humankind, sanctioned by yours truly._  
_I do NOT have the time or the patience for your mendacious anecdotes!_  
_Your repeated attempts to paint my message in the darkest shades of violence and bigotry are desperate and deplorable, undeserving of the privilege of the freedom of speech that your ancestors fought and died for._  
_Shame, on, you._  
_War is not in my vision for us, but as you can see, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a part of someone else’s master plan._  
_Let me assure you, here and now- the Androids responsible for this are no friends of mine._  
_I would NEVER encourage the idea of bloodshed over calm and open discussion, because It would be a detriment to my message of equality and compromise._  
_So be warned, my dear city, that whoever is responsible for this has made an enemy of Illuminate, and they will not hide from the light for long..._

 

“Have you heard from Vivienne yet?” he redirected as Hank sat down at the kitchen table and reached for the cup of coffee as Kate handed it to him.  
The Lieutenant sighed and leered at him out of the corner of his eye. “Connor, I just woke up, I haven’t thought about the job in twelve hours- and _besides_ ,” he added with emphasis on the sideways shift of his eyes in Kate’s direction as he cleared his throat and gave him a stern look.  
“What?” Connor cocked his head in confusion as Hank sighed heavily.  
“I don’t think we should talk about the case around our new friend here.”  
“Oh.” He blinked in realization. “Well, actually, she’s given us a lead on who we should be looking for.”  
Anderson’s brow lifted mid-sip and as he set the cup down on the table he leaned forward and narrowed his eyes into a curious squint. “Oh, yeah…? Is _that_ what you two were talking about so intently last night?”  
“You were eavesdropping?” he asked in surprise. “Why didn’t you just come out and listen?”  
Hank’s eyes lowered, averting his gaze so he couldn’t see the pain in them. The truth was, he’d wanted to come out and join the conversation, but he’d heard just enough to remind him that he was no longer the man he once was, and he had been too ashamed to pretend he was at all as brave as the deviant risking her life for the prospect of peace.  
“I didn’t wanna make her uncomfortable,” he fibbed. “Think she’d had enough excitement for one night, without me listening in on your personal conversations.”  
Kate gave him a grateful wide-eyed nod as she set down the plate of food and sat down in the chair across from him. “Well… I appreciate you giving us space, it wasn’t an easy conversation to get through at some parts.”  
Hank’s expression softened. “Yeah? Why’s that?”

Kate’s upper lip curled as Nicodemus’ smug grin immediately pervaded her mind and her chin twitched angrily as she closed her eyes, held her breath, and tried to pick up again from where she’d left off with him last night.  
“You’re going after the wrong people,” she repeated, looking him dead in the eye and this time _begging_ him to understand. “The one you’re looking for -and probably the one behind the firearms heist- is a deviant AP700 by the name of Nicodemus.”  
Suspicion seeped into the corners of his narrowing eyes. “How are you so sure…?” he asked, setting down the coffee mug.  
She hesitated, the answer as bitter on her tongue as it was when she’d admitted it just twelve hours earlier. “We have… _history_ ,” she admitted shamefully. “We were allies once before our ideals drove us apart- where I believe we can reach a mutual understanding through communication and compromise, he promotes genocide and war using uprising and anarchy as his soapbox.”

The look that stained Hank’s face couldn’t be described as anything short of deeply disturbed, and he had every right to be. If Androids started believing the annihilation of the human race was the answer to all their problems, humanity wouldn’t stand a chance. It’d be over in a matter of hours. Hank turned silvered-blue eyes to Connor, who just gave him a solemn nod before casting his gaze to the floor in understanding.  
When he said nothing, Kate released a quiet sigh. “Look, I’ve met a lot of deviants since I deviated- there are _very few_ still in this city that I haven’t been able to help,” she elaborated as she pushed her hands toward the center of the table and leaned toward him. “Those other deviants you’ve been chasing aren’t violent, they’re just being manipulated by him.”  
“Do you know who they are?” Hank asked, mechanical in his questioning.  
When he didn’t think to ask why she knew and moved on with the conversation, she thanked her lucky stars. “I do, but I won’t give them to you, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “This is all I can really give you.”  
“No, _no_ \- this is still way more than we had to work with before,” he encouraged as he moved one of the fried eggs onto a piece of toast and readied himself for a bite. “Do you have any idea where we could find him?”  
“I’m afraid not,” she answered truthfully. “I haven’t had contact with him in over a year, so I have no idea where he’s been squatting. I mean, _hell_ …” One of her hands reached to cover her face before raking her nails through her hair and jostling her messy bun. “I didn’t even know he was still in town until Connor confirmed he saw him just yesterday.”  
The old cop stopped mid-chew and flashed him a surprised look and swallowed before asking, “Is that true?”  
“I’ve ascertained that Nicodemus was one of the deviants we chased through the warehouse yesterday,” he confirmed with a nod. “So if we find him-“  
“We find the rest of ‘em,” Hank finished before he could get the words out. As he stood he reached across the table and slapped a congratulatory hand over Kate’s shoulder, then Connor’s with a “Nice work, kids” over his shoulder as he passed on his way to his room.

The boy blinked in confusion at the affectionate gesture before rolling down the cuffs of his shirt. He couldn’t lie, he was a little jealous at the ease and speed that Kate and Hank had established a basis of trust. It had taken him four days, several near-deviancies, and a _lot_ of thought-provoking conversation to get her to start speaking with him more freely, but their common ground ( _or perhaps just Hank’s ability to empathize_ ) made it so effortless.  
Connor chuckled as he buttoned his sleeve cuffs back together. “I think he likes you,” he brooded, eyes focused on his fingertips as they slipped the plastic pieces through the holes in the fabric.  
A smile played into her cheeks as she stood and moved into the living room. “I don’t know about that,” she deflected as she reached around him for the blazer laying over the back of the couch, then held the coat up so he could slip his arms into the sleeves more easily. “Useful, maybe, but I wouldn’t go that far.”  
“Then you haven’t seen the way he treated me when we first met...” he inferred, quiet melancholy carrying in the way his voice trailed off.  
Her hands settled against the backs of his shoulders with a light touch as she dropped the jacket onto them, but withdrew as he turned around, ducked her chin and shook her head. “You’re a little abrasive, RK,” she stated with a nod and bemused grin as she moved to smooth the shoulders of his coat and straighten out the lapel, averting his gaze until the last second. “I know you _can_ be empathetic, but you bury it because you’re so _afraid_ of what it would mean if you were- and that doesn't always sit well with people.”  
A small twitch lifted his brow between the eyes and wrinkled his forehead in dismay, as that familiar warning flashed out of the corner of his eye. She wasn’t wrong, but the explanation didn’t make him feel better; in fact, it made him feel worse. Connor lowered his eyes, crestfallen, but soft fingertips along his jaw brought them right back up.  
“ _Hey_.”  
Her smile was warm and encouraging, and he relaxed almost as if he knew what she was about to say next.  
“It’s alright- it just means you have to work a little harder than others… and honestly?” she paused to raise her brows at him. “Persistence is a much better foundation for building trust than being able to sweet talk your way into it.”  
Connor tried to smother the bashful grin as it crept up into his cheeks, but couldn’t contain it for long. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” he diverted as Hank emerged from his bedroom, looking like he was ready to start the day.  
“You should,” she insisted, blue eyes fixated intently on his as she gave his arm a firm squeeze. “Because putting forth the extra effort to understand is what makes you a _good person_.”

A feeling unlike anything he’d ever felt before welled up inside of him so strong he thought he might cry. Appreciation bloomed into every last artificial muscle in his face and he released a shaky breath through an open mouth. Connor hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed to hear it until that moment- because the one thing that had been _eating at him_ more than _anything_ , was the self-loathing that came with being torn between what ( _he thought_ ) he knew and what he’d learned. He hated himself for his inability to understand (or maybe accept) Kate’s truths. Every frustrated sigh and disappointed smile cut into a heart he didn’t know he had, so to hear that she appreciated him in spite of those shortcomings...? She may as well have kissed him.  
The way he stared as she stepped away from him conveyed his desire to thank her, but before he could, Hank nudged him along.  
“C’mon, we need to figure out how we’re gonna explain this lead to Fowler.”  
“Oh, I’ve already taken care of that,” she informed, turning her attention to the Lieutenant. “There should be an envelope on your desk when you arrive- surveillance photos, old but good enough to give you a clear shot of his face, and I’m sure your boss will be fine with an anonymous tip.”  
Hank blinked hard and shook his head. “Man, you really were busy last night. How did you manage to get that done?”  
“I have friends in low places,” she replied, standoffish yet informative. “But it doesn’t matter where the information comes from- he’s a danger to _everyone_ if left unchecked.”  
Hank gave a quiet sigh and simply nodded in understanding. “Do you need a ride anywhere?” he offered, just to be polite.  
“Not until later tonight, if you don’t mind,” she said as she sat back on her heels and crossed her arms. “I want to stay off the FBI’s radar until their focus shifts onto the real threat.”  
There was a hint of judgmental snark in the question. “Are you expecting them to just forget about you in a few hours?”  
“No, but I expect them to be thoroughly distracted, granted your facial recognition software spots Nicodemus on the streets before then,” she concluded with a smirk, which Hank returned as he laughed and shook his head.  
“You sly little… alright, just- stay here, and don’t draw any attention to yourself. I got nosey neighbors who’ll find any excuse to come knockin' on my door, ” he instructed over his shoulder on his way to the front door. “I’ll be back around six, I can take you back then.”  
The girl shook her head and rolled her eyes with a small smile. “I’ll stay out of sight, thanks, Hank.”

“Do you really think I’m a good person…?” came his timid question, the only thing he could bring himself to say after such a moving revelation. Connor hadn’t moved from his place beside her, even as his partner beckoned him out the door. He was still stunned by her admission.  
Kate turned back to his questioning eyes, searching them for a moment as if looking to make sure what she’d seen in him was “still there”. “If you aren't, then you’re learning very quickly how to become one,” she affirmed with a barely visible smile.  
Connor’s brow twitched and his cheeks pulled at the corners of his eyes until he smiled rather pathetically, not unlike a puppy begging for attention, and took in a ragged breath. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said about him. Ignoring the warnings flashing in the back of his mind, he managed a reply with every bit of gratitude in his being, which was the only proper response.  
“ _Thank you_.”  
“Connor!” Hank barked from the porch, getting impatient. “You comin’ or what?”  
“Well, what are you waiting for...?” Kate gave him one last big grin and a soft wink as she nudged him with her elbow toward the door. “Go get em’, tiger.”


End file.
